Champions Online: Free for All

Nomadic former Blizzard leader Bill Roper has been promoted to leader of Disney's games business.

He replaces Bungie co-founder Alex Seropian, who held the role for one year, according to Gamasutra.

Roper joined Disney last July to head the Marvel gaming division.

But what exactly is he now leading? Disney pulled out of core gaming after Pure, Split/Second, Turok and Epic Mickey failed to set the world alight. Disney even closed Black Rock Studios and Propaganda Games as a result.

Disney's game factory now turns out less risky cash-spinners like Disney Universe, LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean and Toy Story 3 - an odd portfolio for someone like Bill Roper to manage. He was a director at Blizzard for nearly 10 years, and helped establish the Diablo, StarCraft and Warcraft series.

Bill Roper went on to make flawed but ambitious core action RPG Hellgate, and then superhero MMO Champions Online.

He then surfaced again early last year, talking about some big ideas he'd been sitting on and how he was no longer tied down. And now this - Disney.

Starting tomorrow with Spiral Knights and ending on Sunday with AVA, each one will get a 'F2P Game of the Day' slot which will see exclusive in-game extras up for grabs.

"The introduction of Free to Play games is another example of the constant evolution of Steam," commented Valve exec Jason Holtman.

"Free to Play games offer new game genres and game experiences for customers, while offering developers and publishers new revenue opportunities and the ability to reach customers in areas of the world where the traditional packaged goods model is less popular than F2P."

According to the publisher's latest earnings report, the California-based studio was classed as a "discontinued operation" as of 31st March this year.

"In line with the previously stated strategy of fewer but more profitable releases and further expansion into casual online and mobile games, the Company has determined that external development creates more flexibility in the three changing marketplace," explained the report.

"Therefore, the Company has made the decision to divest itself from Cryptic Studios. The divestiture process is underway and more details will be provided as appropriate."

Cryptic had initially struggled following its purchase by Atari back in 2008, but had recently shown signs of an upswing. Losses were 5.3 million for the 2010/11 fiscal year, up from 12.6 million in 2009/2010.

Gamasutra reports that Atari will continue to support all active Cryptic titles while a buyer is sought, and development on its Neverwinter project will continue as normal.

A post from a Cryptic employee on the Star Trek Online forums suggested it wasn't all doom and gloom on the studio floor.

"The headline is chosen a little unfortunate by the colleagues at Gamasutra and makes it sound like we're a kicked puppy standing in the rain. That's not the case," stated a community representative.

"Support for Champions Online and Star Trek Online will be continuing as normal, our staff is working hard on their projects (and the folks from the Champions team deserve an extra cheer for their new stuff by the way) and there are no planned changes to the way any of our games and projects will operate."

Star Trek Online was Cryptic's most recent launch back in February 2010, scoring 6/10 from Eurogamer's Oli Welsh.

MMO maker Cryptic Studios has once again propped up parent company Atari with money made from Star Trek Online and Champions Online.

Both games helped online revenue for the first nine months of the 2010/2011 financial year rise nearly 500 per cent from the previous year to 18.4 million (£15.4 million).

Much of this improvement was down to Champions Online's switch from a subscription based MMO to free-to-play, the initial results of which were "promising", Atari said.

Early sales performance for online-enabled racer Test Drive Unlimited 2, which Oli awarded 7/10 to, were "in line with expectations".

Still, French company Atari's revenues for the 2010 holiday quarter were down 52.5 per cent from the year before to 11.4 million (£9.5 million).

And nine month revenues for the fiscal year (1st April to 31st December 2010) were down 55.7 per cent at 41 million (£34.3 million), compared to the same period in the previous financial year when Terminal Reality's Ghostbusters: The Video Game was released.

Atari blamed the decrease on its new focus on selling fewer but more profitable games and online games.

"Over the next few months, we look forward to new game releases based upon our classic Atari game franchises as well as Ghostbusters, Dungeons and Dragons and The Witcher," CEO Jim Wilson said.

A bumper year for Cryptic Studios  the MMO specialists behind Star Trek Online and Champions Online  has encouraged owner Atari to shift its focus to the online market.

As reported by IndustryGamer, Atari's half year financial report has revealed a worrying slump for the publisher. Revenues are down 60 per cent to 29.6 million compared to 68.5 million over the same period last year.

The only good news was a strong showing for its online division with revenues soaring to 12.9 million from 1.8 million in 2009, largely thanks to Cryptic Studios' efforts.

Duly, Atari has announced it's planning to invest heavily in online gaming to address the decline. It has Asteroids Online, Deer Hunter Online and a new Neverwinter title from Cryptic all lined up, as well as Atari Games Online  a new initiative set up to develop online casual and social games.

If you want Star Trek Online to be free-to-play then you had better jolly well say so, Cryptic boss Jack Emmert has told Eurogamer, because right now that decision hangs in the balance.

"I'm sure people are wondering whether we'll do it with Star Trek and the question is really how well it does for Champions," explained Emmert. "Does it work or doesn't it?

"We're not sold one way or the other with Star Trek yet. If people want Star Trek to go free-to-play then get in and play Champions and help make it a great success, because that would send a strong message."

"If we did Turbine's level of success that would certainly merit the discussion!"

But, he added: "There are more people than just I on that decision and I can't begin to say it would be an automatic 'Yes, we'd do it.'"

"We hope for a success as big as DDO," Emmert enthused. "That would be great - but I wouldn't say we're betting on it.

"In other words, I'm not going to say we'll do or die if we don't get five times our revenue or whatever the stats were that Turbine did. We're just hoping to open it up and increase the fanbase, and we'll just wait and see - I'd love it if we got their results, but hey, if that doesn't happen it doesn't happen."

Champions Online turning free-to-play means there will be two ways to experience the game: as a Silver member or as a Gold member.

Gold members are existing subscribers who will pay $14.99 a month. Silver members, on the other hand, represent the free-to-play side of the game. Silver members have limitations on character class, costumes, and character slots - "all that kind of stuff". But they can download Champions Online and adventure from zero to superhero without spending a penny or a nickel or a galleon or whatever you use.

Of course there's the option to splash some cash if you so choose, picking content, items and buffs "a la carte" from the in-game C-Store.

Note, however, that if you're a subscriber-turned-Silver member then you'll have to pay to move to a Silver server. "You have to pay to transfer your characters over or you could just start from scratch again," revealed Emmert.

Gold members will have access to some areas that Silver members do not. But apparently the two sets of members can play Champions Online together. "We don't want to disallow that by any stretch."

He reckons the reaction so far to the Champions Online news has been "super great" by the "vast majority", although there have been a "few snarky comments".

"I'm hoping lots of new people would give the game a chance that perhaps didn't even look at it the very first time because it was a subscription MMO," Emmert said. "Naturally I expect a lot more people to come in - we believe strongly that the game was good at launch and even better a year later - and that those people decide to stay around and play in the world. "

"But hey, that's just my own particular gameplay style. I created City of Heroes so if anything I'm insulting myself! That's no slight against anyone but me," he said.

"Nobody sits down and makes games that aren't popular on purpose. You assume it's going to get 9/10, even though there are mistakes. If you told me that somebody would give Champions 4/10, I would have said to you, 'You're crazy! Who in the world would give Champions 4/10? That's for games that don't even run!' I think WWII Online got better than that.

"But it's a different marketplace," he said. "It's an incredibly demanding space now, and what was acceptable five years ago is not even worth discussing."

Turning Champions Online free-to-play is one idea Cryptic Studios has had to spruce up its MMO portfolio. The other: user-generated content. This will appear first in Star Trek Online, so will it carry over into Champions Online?

"Ultimately, yeah," said Emmert. "Eventually we would like to do it.

"User-generated content has always been part of our strategic plan for years and years and years. Ultimately I'd like to have it in every game we do in one version or another."

That doesn't mean that Cryptic's developers will simply abandon Star Trek Online and Champions Online to the community though. "No, no," Emmert insisted. "We'll still continue making content. It's just that now you've got more content to choose from. You've got the stuff created by the developers as well as the stuff created by your friends, other people and so forth."

Star Trek Online's user-generated content system is undergoing beta testing now. For existing games - and even for new project Neverwinter - UGC and F2P are on the cards. And Cryptic 3.0, as Emmert called it, has more ideas up its sleeves - several unannounced projects, for starters.

"A lot of our innovation is going to be coming in games that haven't been released yet. There are still things under development that we're working on at Cryptic.

"There's a project that I'm more involved with the design than I have been in a long time than anything," he added. "Something that's close to my heart. And so that's very exciting."

"It is definitely not fantasy-based. I can say that. It is something that's pretty exciting. It's under wraps and hopefully we can talk about it soon."

World of Warcraft has "sucked the oxygen" from the subscription market: that's why the tide is turning towards free-to-play. And the only game with enough clout to compete is BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic.

"You're skating up hill if you don't offer a free-to-play option," Cryptic Studios head Jack Emmert told Eurogamer. "You're skating up against World of Warcraft and theoretically SWTOR. That's your competition. And unless you think your games are as good or better than those - because you also have to overcome their reputation - it's going to be highly unlikely a large number of people, meaning 200,000-plus, are going to be willing to subscribe to your game. And a lot of companies are making $50-60-70 million bets, and I just don't see that there's a market for their products."

He added: "I don't foresee anything toppling those [WOW and SWTOR] at the moment. You either build-big or go home; you have to spend at least $50 million on your product, and even then it's a basic proposition. When you come out, you've got to not only beat World of Warcraft as it was when it launched, you've got to beat all the developments it has had since then. That's really, really hard."

"I don't believe that subscriptions are dead," Emmert expanded, "because there are 10 million or so people subscribing to WOW that beg to differ. What I think is there are simply not as many people willing to pay another subscription in addition to WOW, in addition to their Xbox Gold membership.

"As a result, they'll pay, but only for games that are worth it. They reserve judgement. They're not going to go into a store and buy an MMO off the shelf and start committing to a subscription month in month out unless they're 100 per cent sure that game matches their expectations, and so often times they don't even try it.

"What free-to-play does is say, 'Go ahead and try it, there's nothing at risk here.' There isn't this sense that you're adding a charge onto your monthly Visa bill or what have you; you're just sampling it, giving it a shot, seeing if it works. If it doesn't, no harm no foul - you don't play.

"World of Warcraft has pretty much sucked the oxygen out of the subscription market and kind of devoured it itself," he added, "and those games that are currently subscription-based are battling for a very, very small market of people who either don't like WOW or are willing to pay a second subscription."

Can, as Emmert suggested, BioWare really be the WOW-toppler we've so desperately wanted to label every MMO since 2006 as? Taking EA's alleged $300m investment as gospel would suggest it has the scope to be.

"If I'm a consumer and I walk into a store and I look at it, I have to be 100 per cent sure that that subscription game is going to deliver an experience equal to or better than World of Warcraft. That's my benchmark. If they can do that..." he pondered.

"Now, here's the thing: BioWare and the team and certainly with the money they've spent on it, there's every reason for the consumer to believe that the quality level will be equal. From their point of view, they can probably attract that attention - they can still get the benefit of the doubt. It's BioWare, right? We all know BioWare makes great games. They'll buy it.

"But then it's will the game be good enough?" Emmert asked. "I'm not here to judge."

Atari Europe and Cryptic Studios have announced a change to superhero MMO Champions Online: from Q1 2011 the game will be free-to-play.

In practice, that means anyone can download the game and play up to maximum level for free. There is no subscription and no upfront charge.

There will be a complimentary web-based and in-game C-Store, though, where you can grab things like items, powers, costumes and Adventure Packs for real-world money.

You can also upgrade to Gold status should you decide you want to stay a while. This membership unlocks "most of the game's content and includes extra features".

Cryptic will beta test the free-to-play model starting 9th November. Current players will have preference of entry.

Champions Online will follow in the footsteps of Turbine MMOs Dungeons & Dragons Online and The Lord of the Rings Online, which both turned (or are turning) free-to-play. DDO had great success in the US: the switch to F2P attracted one million users and boosted revenues 500 per cent.

Champions Online launched last September and was, by Cryptic's own admission, not as good as it had hoped. As a result Cryptic has decided to focus on online multiplayer games rather than massively multiplayer online games. The first product of this will be Neverwinter, a D&D adventure to succeed BioWare's Neverwinter Nights.

But Cryptic boss Jack Emmert promised Eurogamer that Champions Online and Star Trek Online would not be forgotten. They will continue to "chug along", Emmert promised in September.